A SOCIAL COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF A SMALL-SCALE CLAM FISHERY IN THE EASTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA

When a proposal was advanced in 1991 to harvest the wedge clam Donax serra in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, for commercial gain, it elicited a huge public outcry. In order to shed light on the issue, a social costbenefit analysis (CBA), based on a biologically sustainable extraction rate of 100 ton of clams per year, was carried out on its commercial exploitation. Because fishery activities might exact a price on society in the form of negatively altering the quality of people\'s recreation experience in the area, as well as damage the aesthetic and ecological attributes of the beach system, such external effects were identified and valuated. Results from the CBA yielded positive net present values (NPVs) for project options involving live clams being sold on the export market (to Hong Kong) for R24.70 kg-1 and negative NPVs for domestic market options (Johannesburg and Cape Town), where the clam would be sold for R6.50 kg-1. Assuming a discount rate of 8&#37, the highest NPV was obtained for the scenario in which total production was sold on the foreign market and the firm rented facilities of an existing organization. The external cost was the single largest component of the cost of the fishery. The conclusion drawn is that the social benefit of the project exceeds the social cost – a conclusion which supports commercial exploitation of clam stocks along the St Francis Bay beach, but one which does not include the osts associated with policing.Afr. J. mar. Sci. 25: 159–16

Plasma CXCL10, sCD163 and sCD14 Levels Have Distinct Associations with Antiretroviral Treatment and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors

We investigate the associations of three established plasma biomarkers in the context of HIV and treatment-related variables including a comprehensive cardiovascular disease risk assessment, within a large ambulatory HIV cohort. Patients were recruited in 2010 to form the Royal Perth Hospital HIV/CVD risk cohort. Plasma sCD14, sCD163 and CXCL10 levels were measured in 475 consecutive patients with documented CVD risk (age, ethnicity, gender, smoking, blood pressure, BMI, fasting metabolic profile) and HIV treatment history including immunological/virological outcomes. The biomarkers assessed showed distinct associations with virological response: CXCL10 strongly correlated with HIV-1 RNA (p0.2). Associations between higher sCD163 and protease inhibitor therapy (p = 0.05) and lower sCD14 with integrase inhibitor therapy (p = 0.02) were observed. Levels of sCD163 were also associated with CVD risk factors (age, ethnicity, HDL, BMI), with a favourable influence of Framingham score <10% (p = 0.04). Soluble CD14 levels were higher among smokers (p = 0.002), with no effect of other CVD risk factors, except age (p = 0.045). Our findings confirm CXCL10, sCD163 and sCD14 have distinct associations with different aspects of HIV infection and treatment. Levels of CXCL10 correlated with routinely monitored variables, sCD163 levels reflect a deeper level of virological suppression and influence of CVD risk factors, while sCD14 levels were not associated with routinely monitored variables, with evidence of specific effects of smoking and integrase inhibitor therapy warranting further investigation

Human resources for health policies: a critical component in health policies

In the last few years, increasing attention has been paid to the development of health policies. But side by side with the presumed benefits of policy, many analysts share the opinion that a major drawback of health policies is their failure to make room for issues of human resources. Current approaches in human resources suggest a number of weaknesses: a reactive, ad hoc attitude towards problems of human resources; dispersal of accountability within human resources management (HRM); a limited notion of personnel administration that fails to encompass all aspects of HRM; and finally the short-term perspective of HRM. There are three broad arguments for modernizing the ways in which human resources for health are managed: • the central role of the workforce in the health sector; • the various challenges thrown up by health system reforms; • the need to anticipate the effect on the health workforce (and consequently on service provision) arising from various macroscopic social trends impinging on health systems. The absence of appropriate human resources policies is responsible, in many countries, for a chronic imbalance with multifaceted effects on the health workforce: quantitative mismatch, qualitative disparity, unequal distribution and a lack of coordination between HRM actions and health policy needs. Four proposals have been put forward to modernize how the policy process is conducted in the development of human resources for health (HRH): • to move beyond the traditional approach of personnel administration to a more global concept of HRM; • to give more weight to the integrated, interdependent and systemic nature of the different components of HRM when preparing and implementing policy; • to foster a more proactive attitude among human resources (HR) policy-makers and managers; • to promote the full commitment of all professionals and sectors in all phases of the process. The development of explicit human resources policies is a crucial link in health policies and is needed both to address the imbalances of the health workforce and to foster implementation of the health services reforms

The estimation of herbage yields under fire and grazing treatments in the Mountain Zebra National Park

The application of fire as a management tool is often used to change the species composition of the vegetation and its cover to maintain plant communities in a specific successional stage. This study investigates the influence of two fire treatments (a head and a back fire) on the plateau grassland communities in the Mountain Zebra National Park (MZNP). The production of herbage yield on grazed areas and areas protected from grazing which were subjected to two fire treatments, were compared with that of an unburnt control area subjected to grazing in the same homogenous grassland over two growing seasons. No differences were found in herbage production between the two fire treatment areas. After the burn the grazing exclosures achieved the same herbage yield as the control area within two growing seasons. In comparison, the grazed areas could after the burn only achieve a herbage yield equal to 55.7 of that of the control area. The results indicate that fire stimulates active vegetation growth on the plateau grasslands in MZNP leading to a higher production rate and better utilisation by game

Determinants of tree assemblage composition at the mesoscale within a subtropical eucalypt forest.

A variety of environmental processes, including topography, edaphic and disturbance factors can influence vegetation composition. The relative influence of these patterns has been known to vary with scale, however, few studies have focused on environmental drivers of composition at the mesoscale. This study examined the relative importance of topography, catchment flow and soil in influencing tree assemblages in Karawatha Forest Park; a South-East Queensland subtropical eucalypt forest embedded in an urban matrix that is part of the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network South-East Queensland Peri-urban SuperSite. Thirty-three LTER plots were surveyed at the mesoscale (909 ha), where all woody stems ≥1.3 m high rooted within plots were sampled. Vegetation was divided into three cohorts: small (≥1-10 cm DBH), intermediate (≥10-30 cm DBH), and large (≥30 cm DBH). Plot slope, aspect, elevation, catchment area and location and soil chemistry and structure were also measured. Ordinations and smooth surface modelling were used to determine drivers of vegetation assemblage in each cohort. Vegetation composition was highly variable among plots at the mesoscale (plots systematically placed at 500 m intervals). Elevation was strongly related to woody vegetation composition across all cohorts (R2: 0.69-0.75). Other topographic variables that explained a substantial amount of variation in composition were catchment area (R2: 0.43-0.45) and slope (R2: 0.23-0.61). Soil chemistry (R2: 0.09-0.75) was also associated with woody vegetation composition. While species composition differed substantially between cohorts, the environmental variables explaining composition did not. These results demonstrate the overriding importance of elevation and other topographic features in discriminating tree assemblage patterns irrespective of tree size. The importance of soil characteristics to tree assemblages was also influenced by topography, where ridge top sites were typically drier and had lower soil nutrient levels than riparian areas

Fire management on private conservation lands : knowledge, perceptions and actions of landholders in eastern Australia

Fire is an important natural disturbance process within the Australian landscape, but the complex and hazardous nature of fire creates a conservation management dilemma. For landholders of private conservation lands, management for conservation of biodiversity and risk reduction is complicated. Private conservation landholders in eastern Australia directed far less effort towards fire management than other conservation management actions, despite clearly acknowledging the risk and associated responsibilities of fire management on their lands. Nonetheless, landholders did undertake actions to reduce fuel hazards and prepare for wildfire events on their land. Despite the established role and benefits of fire to many ecosystems in the region, landholder understanding of the ecological role of fire was generally poor. Few landholders were aware of ecologically appropriate fire regimes for the vegetation types on their property, and few undertook fire management actions to achieve ecological outcomes. Site-specific obstacles, lack of fire management knowledge and experience, and legal and containment concerns contributed to the low level of fire management observed. There is a need for property-specific fire management planning across all private conservation lands, to further integrate ecological fire requirements into biodiversity management, and prioritise actions that aim to improve conservation outcomes while safeguarding life and property.<br /

The changing face of HIV-1 diversity in Western Australia - a 12 year analysis

Oral presentatio

Longitudinal Trends in Western Australian HIV-1 Sequence Diversity and Viral Transmission Networks and Their Influence on Clinical Parameters: 2000–2014

We examined baseline HIV-1 protease and reverse transcriptase sequences and HIV clinical parameters from 1,021 consecutive patients (814 male, 207 female) through the Royal Perth Hospital HIV service to investigate HIV-1 subtype diversity and local phylogenetic networks from 2000 to 2014. HIV-1 subtype B virus sequences were demonstrated in 619 (61%) of cases, with increasing non-B HIV-1 subtypes from 23.2% (2000-2003) to 48% (2008-2011) and 43% (2012-2014) (p 2: 135/211; 64% vs. 13/69; 19%; p = 0.001), including one cluster of 53 HIV-1 B subtype sequences that evolved from 2008 to 2014. Non-B subtype HIV-1 was associated with lower baseline CD4 T cell count (p = 0.005) but not plasma HIV-1 RNA levels (p = 0.31), suggesting relatively delayed diagnosis. Baseline viral load was strongly associated with calendar time [mean 18,620 copies/ml in 2000-2003; 75,858 copies/ml in 2012-2014 (p 2) in adjusted analyses (p = 0.03). This study identifies a number of temporal trends over the past 15 years, including an increasing prevalence of non-B subtype HIV-1 that highlights the growing influence of migration and travel on the Australian HIV-1 epidemic and the associated increased role of heterosexual HIV-1 transmission in this context. At the same time, these data indicate that local transmission within predominantly male networks remains a challenging issue for HIV-1 prevention

Spatial and temporal changes in group dynamics and range use enable anti-predator responses in African buffalo

The reintroduction of large predators provides a framework to investigate responses by prey species to predators. Considerable research has been directed at the impact that reintroduced wolves (Canis lupus) have on cervids, and to a lesser degree, bovids, in northern temperate regions. Generally, these impacts alter feeding, activity, and ranging behavior, or combinations of these. However, there are few studies on the response of African bovids to reintroduced predators, and thus, there is limited data to compare responses by tropical and temperate ungulates to predator reintroductions. Using the reintroduction of lion (Panthera leo) into the Addo Elephant National Park (AENP) Main Camp Section, South Africa, we show that Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer) responses differ from northern temperate ungulates. Following lion reintroduction, buffalo herds amalgamated into larger, more defendable units; this corresponded with an increase in the survival of juvenile buffalo. Current habitat preference of buffalo breeding herds is for open habitats, especially during the night and morning, when lion are active. The increase in group size and habitat preference countered initial high levels of predation on juvenile buffalo, resulting in a return in the proportion of juveniles in breeding herds to pre-lion levels. Our results show that buffalo responses to reintroduced large predators in southern Africa differ to those of northern temperate bovids or cervids in the face of wolf predation. We predict that the nature of the prey response to predator reintroduction is likely to reflect the trade-off between the predator selection and hunting strategy of predators against the life history and foraging strategies of each prey species